Lee Baek-soon, right, director-general of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ North American Affairs Bureau, and Lt. Gen. Jan-Marc Jouas, deputy commander of the U.S. Forces Korea, shake hands during a Joint Committee meeting of the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) at Yongsan United States military base in Seoul, Wednesday. / Yonhap

By Chung Min-uck

Korea has gained more legal jurisdiction over United States soldiers here who commit criminal acts.

Officials from Seoul and Washington agreed to grant Korean officials more investigative authority during the preliminary stages of criminal cases involving U.S. troops, according to the foreign ministry.

“Until now, it was hard for the investigators to take control due to the clause that states the U.S. soldiers suspected of crime should be ‘indicted within 24 hours,’” said a foreign ministry official, Wednesday. “By removing the clause we will be able to take the U.S. suspects into custody and have more time to investigate in the initial stages.”

The contentious clause in the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA), which clarifies the legal status of U.S. soldiers here, prevented Korean law enforcement officials from detaining suspected U.S. servicemen for investigation due to a stipulation that suspects should be freed unless charges were laid within a day.

In addition, the two sides agreed to let Korea authority take charge of suspects who it arrested until a U.S. military representative is present and to carry out questioning for a “considerable period of time” even after the arrival of the representative.

The late attendance of U.S. representatives has frequently interrupted the interrogations.

An investigation by Korean officials carried out before the arrival of a U.S. military representative is invalid under the SOFA rule.

“The new measures are expected to strengthen our legal jurisdiction over the U.S. troops,” the official said.

Lee Baek-soon, director-general of the foreign ministry’s North American Affairs Bureau, and Lt. Gen. Jan-Marc Jouas, deputy commander of the U.S. Forces Korea, signed the revision during a Joint Committee meeting of the SOFA at Yongsan U.S. military base in Seoul on Wednesday.

The move comes following the rape of a teenage girl by an American soldier last September, which reignited anti-U.S. sentiment of civic groups and lawmakers who called for a revision of the SOFA.

Anti-American sentiment swept the whole nation in 2002 after two South Korean school girls were accidently run over and killed by a U.S. military vehicle and a U.S. military court acquitted the soldiers responsible.

Statistics show the number of crimes committed by American soldiers and dependants here has been increasing.

Around 28,000 U.S. troops are stationed in South Korea to defend against any invasion attempts by North Korea.